Hourslong Microsoft outage disrupts Korean companies' daily operations

A global Microsoft outage disrupted operations at major Korean companies on Friday, leaving some employees unable to access emails, coordinate with business partners and manage daily workflows as the tech giant struggled to restore its systems. The disruption affected multiple Microsoft services, including its Outlook email, parts of its Teams messaging app, Microsoft 365 productivity tools and Copilot artificial intelligence (AI) assistant. While the impact varied by company depending on the services used, some employees were forced to postpone work or turn to alternative communication channels. Some major companies sent urgent companywide notices alerting employees about the outage and asking them to check which Microsoft services were affected. Some companies also circulated email notices identifying services that were unavailable. An IT industry official said employees had turned to other messaging apps to keep some work moving but the workaround offered only limited relief. “Since we cannot use email, we are exchanging files through messaging apps. But some files cannot be sent tha